The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the Indian cricket team for the ODI series against New Zealand on Saturday evening. Opener Shikhar Dhawan who missed out on the Australia ODI series due to personal reasons made a comeback to the side.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the Indian cricket team for the ODI series against New Zealand on Saturday evening. Opener Shikhar Dhawan who missed out on the Australia ODI series due to personal reasons made a comeback to the side while the selectors also decided to bring back in-form Dinesh Karthik who was a part of the T20 team for the recently concluded series against Australia. KL Rahul who didn’t play a single match against the Aussies was dropped from the side along with fast-bowlers Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami. The selectors have decided to include young Shardul Thakur instead who made his debut against Sri Lanka.

Coming to the spin department, the duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja once again failed to find a place in the squad as the selectors decided to continue with the trio of Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal that has been highly successful in the last couple of series. Rohit and Virat Kohli will lead India’s top order along with Shikhar Dhawan while Ajinkya Rahane has been selected as the third opener.

Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav kept their places in the middle-order along with the former captain MS Dhoni. Hardik Pandya was selected as the fast-bowling all-rounder and will add balance to the side. Earlier in the day, New Zealand had announced its squad for the series. Glenn Phillips and Todd Astle are in line to make their ODI debut after being among the six players added to the New Zealand squad for the three-match series, beginning on October 22.

Besides Phillips and Astle, Matt Henry, Henry Nicholls, Colin Munro and George Worker will join the national team after the conclusion of the series between India A and New Zealand A in Visakhapatnam tomorrow.